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Dessert

Lafayette Gingerbread

A spiced gingerbread cake made with eggs, butter, molasses, flour, ginger, cinnamon, allspice, cloves, and lemon.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Lafayette Gingerbread

Why it works: Cinnamon and allspice match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,536 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Lafayette Gingerbread

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a moderate oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Make the batter

  1. Cream the butter and brown sugar together.

  2. Beat the eggs very well.

  3. Pour the molasses into the butter and sugar mixture.

  4. Add the ginger, cinnamon, allspice, and cloves, and stir well.

  5. Alternately add the eggs and flour, stirring continuously.

  6. Mix until very light, then add the lemon juice and peel.

Bake

  1. Butter an earthenware or thick tin pan and pour in the batter.

  2. Bake in a moderate oven at 350°F (175°C) for about 1 hour, or until cooked through.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.

  1. Cinnamon + allspicetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,536 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Ginger + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,380 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  3. Ginger + allspicetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,620 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  4. Flour + cinnamontop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,341 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Sugar + cinnamontop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together30,779 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

Sugar and cinnamon barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 30,779 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Eggs
Add structure and lift, helping the batter set and hold its crumb as it bakes.
Butter
Adds richness and tenderness, carrying flavour and softening the crumb.
Brown sugar
Adds sweetness and moisture, and helps the crust brown during baking.
Molasses
Adds deep flavour, moisture and dark colour to the gingerbread.
Flour
Provides the main structure that sets the batter as it bakes.
Ginger
Supplies the warm, spicy aroma that defines the gingerbread.

The step that matters

Alternately add the eggs and flour, stirring continuously. Adding eggs and flour in turns and stirring constantly keeps the batter smooth and emulsified, so it bakes evenly and does not separate or turn lumpy.

Swap the ginger

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (egg, sugar, butter, molasses, flour, cinnamon, allspice):

  1. Nutmegfits better
  2. Clovefits better
  3. Cardamomfits about as well
  4. Gingerthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, sugar, butter, molasses, flour, cinnamon, allspice. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.

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